[ LETTERS ]

KMT’s disturbing US pull

A week ago, I happened to be in Taipei, so I stopped by the Presbyterian church near Taipei Main Station. There was a cage there representing the confines of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). I stepped inside to get a feel and was roundly cursed at in perfectly good English by some doddering old coot.

If that is really what his cell was like — there is barely enough room to lie dow — then it is a good thing Chen is short.

In the US, embezzlers are put in “Club Fed,” not a dog cage. Could there not be a cell somewhere in between, in terms of amenities?

Also, regarding the story in Friday’s Taipei Times about Chen Chih-chung’s (陳致中) houses in the US being confiscated (“US seizes houses bought by Chen Shui-bian’s family,” Nov. 16, page 1), something sounds fishy to me.

Taiwan is not even a “real” country, at least not by UN standards.

The US Department of Justice is busy confiscating the property of drug lords and embezzlers of “real” countries.

Does it really have the time to waste on alleged embezzlers? Do they not have bigger fish to fry? And how does the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) have the political pull to make the US do its bidding?

Has Taiwan not become irrelevant since China is now the goose with the golden egg?

I love Taiwan. It is a very real country to me. I only say this because it is not a member of the UN — the authority on “real” countries. I do not say this to put down the lovely “Ilha Formosa.”

You are welcome to print this letter. Or if not, I would at least like a somewhat clearer editorial about how this situation is even possible. It really seems ridiculous.